MamaCare Sierra Leone

Maternal care that reaches past the network

Antenatal care depends on mothers attending appointments and on health workers knowing which pregnancies need attention. Both break down when records are on paper and the mother lives somewhere the network does not reach.

MamaCare combines a public-facing service for mothers with field tools for community health workers, and it is built so that neither depends on being online at the moment of use.

The challenge

• Antenatal records kept on paper cards that get lost or left at home.
• Missed appointments with no reminder mechanism.
• Community health workers operating in areas with no reliable connectivity.
• Literacy and language barriers to any English-only, text-heavy service.

Platform features

Pregnancy tracking

Week-by-week updates, development milestones and personalised health tips sent to each mother by SMS and in the app.

Appointment booking

Mothers book antenatal clinic visits online, and automated SMS reminders reduce missed appointments.

SMS in Krio and English

Reminders and alerts are sent in both languages, making the platform usable regardless of literacy level or English fluency.

High-risk flagging

The system identifies high-risk pregnancies from reported symptoms and vital signs, alerting midwives to prioritise those cases.

Community health worker tools

CHWs register and monitor mothers in their communities on a mobile interface that stores data locally and syncs when connectivity returns.

District health analytics

District officers see live data on registrations, appointment attendance and high-risk cases across their area.

What changed

• 85% appointment attendance. Automated reminders in the mother's own language changed turnout.
• Field work no longer waits for signal. CHWs record visits offline and sync later, so remote communities are covered.
• High-risk cases are found earlier. Flagging happens at the point of data entry rather than at review.

How it is built

Django, PostgreSQL and Python with SMS gateway integration and an offline-first field interface that queues records locally and reconciles them on reconnection.